Intro

When Apple transitioned from IBM's PowerPC chips to the new Intel-based Macs, it opened up a world of possibilities for users who want to run other operating systems alongside Mac OS X on the same machine. Additionally, because Linux and Windows also use the same Intel chip architecture, virtualization software no longer needs to emulate a different chip, which means huge performance gains for users who want to run Windows or Linux inside OS X.

If you want to run Windows, OS X and nearly any variant of Linux on the same machine you'll need to have one of the newer Intel-based Mac machines. Unfortunately, due to hardware restrictions, running OS X on an ordinary Windows box requires some serious hacking and unless you're very comfortable with both systems, isn't a practical option.

There are two basic ways of running multiple operating systems on your Mac. The first option is dual booting, meaning that to switch between operating systems requires a reboot. The chief advantage of this method is speed. Because Windows or Linux will be running on its own there's none of the performance hits associated with virtualization. 

The main disadvantage is of course you'll have to restart to switch systems.

Apple officially supports the dual-boot option via its Boot Camp software. For gamers and others looking for performance optimized solutions, this is probably the best option.

The second method of creating an all-in-one machine is to use one of the virtualization software packages available from a variety of third party manufacturers. Perhaps the most popular of these package is the much touted Parallels 3, though there are also options available from VMWare.

The main advantage of virtualization is that it integrates into OS X and there's no need to restart your machine. Parallels 3 even offers support of file mapping which means opening a file from OS X's Finder will automatically launch the virtual machine and open the Windows application associated with that file.

What you'll need

For the dual boot option you'll need to install <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/">Boot Camp from Apple</a>. Though Boot Camp is officially a beta offering, in almost a year of use I've experienced few technical problems. Boot Camp will reportedly by an official part of the next version of Mac OS X, dubbed Leopard, which is due for release in October of 2007.

For the virtualization route, you'll need either <a href="http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/">Parallels Desktop for Mac</a>, VMWare's <a href="http://www.vmware.com/beta/fusion/index.html">Fusion</a> or similar third party virtualization app.

No matter what method you use, you'll need a full, licensed copy of the version of Windows you'd like to install.

Bear in mind, if you go the virtualization route and want to use Windows Vista you'll need the Ultimate version according to Microsoft's licensing terms.

Dual Booting

Once you've downloaded Boot Camp, double click the .dmg file to mount the disk image and then double click the installer.

Once you've installed Boot Camp, navigate in the Finder to /Applications/Utilities/Boot Camp Assistant. Double click the assistant and you should see a welcome screen that asks you to burn a Windows driver CD.

Insert a CD and burn the Windows drivers. You'll need these drivers after you install Windows since they contain all the information Windows needs to recognize your keyboard, mouse, iSite and other peripherals. Note that many third party devices are not included so you may need to download additional Windows drivers for printers, scanners and the like.

Once you have your Windows Driver CD, return to the main menu and select the option "Start the Windows Installer." At this point Boot Camp Assistant will ask you to insert your Windows CD. At the time of writing supported systems include Windows XP Home and Professional and Windows Vista Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate.

Click "Start the Installation" and Boot Camp Assistant will walk you through the steps of adding a partition to your hard drive and installing Windows.

Once Windows is installed, you can chose which system you'd like to boot from by holding down the "Option" key during startup.

Don't forget to insert the Windows Drivers CD you burned earlier and run that installer from within the Windows partition.

Enjoy your dual booting system.

Virtualization

To use parallels you can download a 30-day trial from the site, or purchase the software for $80.

To use VMWare's Fusion virtualization download a copy of the beta from VMWare's site. For the time being the beta is free, pre-orders for the final version cost $40 and when it's released Fusion will retail for $80.

Once you've installed either system double click the application and you'll be walked through the steps necessary to set up the virtual machine and install Windows or Linux.

VMWare offers pre-built virtual machines that can be downloaded and used if you don't own a copy of Windows.